JAY-Z isn’t about to take the heat without addressing his side!
After stirring controversy for not standing up with Beyoncé during Demi Lovato‘s Super Bowl national anthem performance on Sunday, the rapper denied he and his wife were making any kind of political statement.
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While at a lecture series Q&A at Columbia University on Tuesday night, he explained to the audience he was simply caught up in the moment as co-producer for the Pepsi halftime show and as a partner of the NFL. Jay shared there was no subtle message being sent:
“It actually wasn’t—sorry. I’d tell you… I’d say, ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve done.’ I think people know that about me.”
The father of three continued:
“What happened was, we got there, we were sitting, and now the show’s about to start. My wife was with me and so she says to me, ‘I know this feeling right here.’ Like, she’s super nervous because she’s performed at Super Bowls before. I haven’t. So we get there and we immediately jump into artist mode… now I’m really just looking at the show. Did the mic start? Was it too low to start? …I had to explain to them as an artist, if you don’t feel the music, you can’t really reach that level.”
As he and Bey were talking about how “proud” they were of Demi once the performance ended, he was alerted that they never ended standing up:
“…Then my phone rang. And it was like, ‘You know you didn’t…’ I’m like, ‘What?’”
The Brooklyn native defended his side, adding he and his wife would never want to put 8-year-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter “in that position.” He described:
“If anyone who knows Blue … If we told her we were going to do something like that, you would have seen her attacking me 100 times. She’s the kid that gets in the car and closes the door and says, ‘Are we there yet, daddy?’ So she would say, ‘What time? Are we doing it? Are we doing it now? It’s 7:05, daddy… It’s 7:06.’”
So, no, there was no meaning to them staying seated, as he further divulged he “didn’t have to make a silent protest,” crediting Shakira and Jennifer Lopez‘s halftime show:
“If you look at the stage and the artists that we chose—Columbian and Puerto Rican J.Lo—we were making the loudest statement.”
Fair enough!
And after hearing a report come out from lovebscott.com about the Roc Nation founder wanting Lopez to cut the cage sequence from the performance, it makes sense he wouldn’t want to stir the pot in other ways.
In case you missed it, J.Lo’s set featured kids crawling out of steel cages as a response to Donald Trump‘s immigration policy detaining undocumented children that way.
JAY allegedly tried to personally intervene to convince her to ditch the segment, but she couldn’t be swayed!
We’d have a hard time believing he’d push to make the Booty singer’s performance less controversial AND sit during the national anthem to make a political statement.
Do you wish he had though?? Sound OFF, Perezcious readers!!
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